The Gritty Girl Blog

Friday, January 3, 2014

My last post was August of 2012. It has been a very long time and a LOT has happened. I've moved. Four times. I've started a mildly successful business from home selling honey handmade soaps, candles and misc. bath and body care products. With moving from Ohio to Nebraska came the loss of the majority of my customer base, financial struggles, finding and starting a new and not well paying job, having to move again, joining a organic farming *co-op, basically getting kicked out and having to move again so we have access to land and the ability to do the things we want to do. It has been a year of struggle. Struggle after struggle.

While living on and sustaining ourselves off of a farm has been our goal, and I knew it wouldn't be easy, I had no idea the amount of challenges we would face in 2013. For 2014, I wish for myself enough balance and stability that I have enough time to work on this blog and share my experiences. It helps to have people to vent to in a place where I have ZERO friends, even if I can't talk to them in person.

Instead of rehashing all of the things that have gone wrong this last year, I would rather just start from day one of 2014. If you know me personally, then you probably have heard me complain about all the bad stuff. If you don't, we aren't close and you probably don't care very much or are just tired of hearing people whine. That's okay by me.

So here we are. About two months after moving into a 70's era house trailer on a 60 acre property Southeast of Lincoln, Nebraska. We plan to start a farm here but we rent so there are some challenges in and of themselves. The house is safe and dry but that is about it. It was gutted by previous renters (after the first house was burned down) and the owner put in the bare minimum (from salvage yards) to make it livable again. This means that we don't have a dishwasher. We don't have a washing machine or dryer. We have bad water pressure with occasional grit and sand. We have NO CLOSET SPACE AND NO CABLE OR INTERNET. Because its an old trailer, we have terrible insulating and it gets cold. When we first moved in we had electrical problems and I was half convinced that we had a ghost because the power went out every time I stepped into the bathtub. We have a feral cat (sometimes two that fight and wake us up at 4:30 am) that lives under the trailer. By spring there will probably be eight. That's what happens when you feed feral cats.

But the property is actually very pretty. There is a grove of cedars with well established trails,a very large pond and lots of space for future livestock and for a really big garden. We have a resident pack of coyotes, deer, and the occasional bobcat. You really can't put a price tag on that. I probably don't sound very thankful or excited but it is -10 degrees today. My jeans were still wet (and cold) when I put them on, one of my eyeballs froze shut when I went out to start my car and my windshield wipers were stuck in the upright position for half of my 40 mile commute to work this morning. Enough said?

So there is the 60 acres and the Trailer. There isn't anything else. There are no out buildings, save for a small chicken coop in need of tlc. There is not even a garage. The ground hasn't been broke for agriculture in years. We want to quit our jobs and eventually live solely on income from the farm. The coldest part of the winter will be spent making the house more cozy and hopefully, attractive. I will probably be plugging my Etsy Shop a lot, because without it, I literally couldn't make all my ends meet.We are going to have our work cut out for us if we want to be able to sustain ourselves here. Some days I really don't see it happening. We must be crazy. We are going to need lots of help and support, encouragement and advice.

Yesterday, Greg put up some new shelves in the room we lovingly coined "the cold room" because for some reason the heat doesn't get all the way to that side of the house. Hard to believe we will soon be using it for starting seeds for the garden.

If you haven't "liked" my Natural History facebook page yet, you can do so HERE.
If you haven't "liked" our new farm's facebook page yet, you can do that HERE.

The great thing about social media is that it literally takes you 2 seconds to hit that "share" button, it helps us tremendously and it costs you nothing :)

So here we go. Back to blogging this year.

*it wasn't really a co-op but the easiest way to describe it in the amount of allotted time I have estimated before I will lose your attention. I won't use the organization's name because I would not put it past them to stalk me without my knowledge. Or have voodoo dolls that resemble Greg and I. I don't know why my arm hurts.

Monday, August 6, 2012

I think this may be one of the easiest, yummiest soups ever. It is easy to prepare (all you do is cut a few things up) and is a great way to use up a windfall of roma or san marzano tomatoes if you find yourself lucky enough to acquire one. One thing though, you HAVE to use romas or san marzanos. Regular slicers or salad tomatoes will not do. They don't have the texture, meatiness and ability to hold up to extreme heat like the paste varieties. If you didn't grow your own maters, go to the farmers market and ask for the ugly ones because they might give you a deal. Or your local grocery store might have them on sale. I would recommend that you let them ripen up for several days on the counter if you go this route-tomatoes from the store are red thanks to a methane gas treatment but they aren't actually ripe. They do this so that the maters can hold up to shipping from say, california to ohio. Scary. Good reason to grow your own.
Ingredients:
3-4 lbs of roma or san marzano tomatoes, washed and sliced in half length wise
1/2 large white onion
large bunch of fresh thyme, or two TBS (yes TBS) of dried
2 heads of garlic (yep, whole heads)
2-3 TBS of olive oil
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 tsp pepper (or to taste. I love pepper so I go heavy)

Directions. Preheat your oven to 450. Wash and cut your maters and spread them out on a pan with raised sides.Your maters will release a lot of liquid which you want to keep in the pan I did not bother to skin mine because I don't mind the skins one bit and think it adds to the texture of the soup. It gets blended up anyway. But if you have issues with the skins, go ahead and peel them but realize that this will take you much longer and you are tossing out a lot of good nutrients and fiber :) I didn't remove any seeds either. Cut up your onion into large chunks. and throw them on the pan too. You don't need to be precise as this all will be blended up. Cut your garlic heads in half and place them on the pan. You don't need to take the time to take the skins off. When the garlic is roasted, they slip right out of the skins, which will be tossed. Throw the thyme on there too. If you are using fresh, I would recommend burying them under the maters so they don't burn in the oven. If you are using dried, just sprinkle it over everything. drizzle the olive oil over everything and give it all a good toss. Put the pan in the oven for about 45 minutes, checking to make sure it doesn't burn but you do want it to brown and darken to give it the roasty taste.

throw it all on, nothing fancy

oopsie daisy...

It should look like this when it is done.

Zip it up in a blender or food processor. It will be very thick and a little chunky.

It is a concentrated soup so if you plan on eating it right away add a few cups of milk or water to thin it out. It will yield about 6 cups of concentrated soup. Garnish it with another drizzle of olive oil, heavy cream, sour cream, cheese, you name it.

You could do a variation of this with other herbs too. If you used oregano and basil, you would have a lovely pasta sauce rather than soup.

I canned mine (the concentrated soup) for dreary winter months, to give to friends and family. The san marzanos came from the dozen or so plants I grew this year. I just love this variety because they are great for cooking and preserving. They are coming on quite heavy and I get a whole grocery bag full every other day or so. I've canned some whole tomatoes too. Need to learn how to can? Go here for some basics. Or go here for some other things to do with tomatoes.

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Sorry for the lack of posts. This summer has been hot and fast. When I'm not doing something or going somewhere, I am trying to sleep or veg or look for a job. Yeah, I don't have one of those yet...

So this is what I have been up to:

New Mexico to visit my beautiful friend Whitney, Grand Canyon, Bryce and Zion in March

Turned 30 and camping/ hiking in the UP (where I got so sick that I didn't know if I would either poop my pants or puke all over the place-telling myself that it happens to everyone when they hit thirty in May

Harvested 30+ lbs of honey, Learned how to make Cold Process Soap, grew an avocado from a pit, and garden stuff in June

California, Yosemite and Sequoia National Park in July, harvested and bottled more honey.

August, improving my etsy shop, canning tomatoes, more job hunting, drying herbs for holiday gift projects, reading a good book or two, staying cool, dreaming about going back to california...

oh, and harvesting more honey. I am up to about 60 lbs and have more to go.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Every time I think I have the beekeeping situation under control, something happens. I checked the giant hives on Saturday, removed some frames of nectar and pollen in the deep boxes so to give more room to the queen to lay her eggs. I then put the frames that were full of pollen and nectar in each of the nucs (nucleus hives or hives that started from the giant. I wish I had made better observations of how much capped brood was in the hive, but that's all I did. I added another honey super (it now has two). In both of the nucs, the queen cells had been released (or killed?) but I did not try to search for them because they wouldn't be laying eggs right after hatching anyways. They were as calm as I ever had seen them and I thought things were progressing nicely. But I didn't check the lower brood boxes in the giant hive. I thought "hey, as long as they are storing a ton of honey, they're doing great!"

Today, I wanted to see if I could find queens in the nucs since the weather was fantastic. I opened up the newest nuc, the one that I had only put two frames of brood and bees in and a cluster of capped queen cells. The first thing I did was spot a queen. She crawled right over my finger on a frame that was empty for the most part. No mistake, it was a queen. I checked the rest of the queen cells and found that they had been chewed up. I am guessing this queen destroyed them before they hatched. Its too early for a just hatched queen to be laying eggs, she probably isn't even mated yet. So what, maybe a 50% chance she mates and comes back to the hive and starts laying successfully? I put the hive back together.

In the older nuc, not much has changed other than the queen cells have all been uncapped. So, queens have emerged but none to be found. I took out every frame and never found a queen. So what the hell? Does this mean that the queen or queens were out mating? Does this mean that the split didn't work? Is it too early to tell? At this point in time, I discovered that the bees were getting a little more hostile. One crawled up my shirt and stung me on my lower back. Sob. All I could do was scratch my head and close up the hive.

Now, by the time I got to the giant hive, the clouds started rolling in out of nowhere. I looked at the honey supers and found them to be full of bees, storing quite a bit of nectar. Both supers are at full capacity. No empty cells to put eggs. When I dug into the deeps I found the majority of the frames were full of nectar and pollen. The empty frames that I had put in to replace the full ones I had stolen for the other hives, were barely touched, the bees didn't seem to interested in drawing it out with wax. No eggs or larva means no new bees. No new bees means the hive will be done by mid summer.

All the frames I checked were full of pollen or nectar and I never found any eggs or young larva. There were a few patches of capped brood but few. My immediate thought was what if the hive swarmed without me knowing it. No, too many bees still. Then I wondered if I had accidentally taken the queen out and put her in one of the nucs when I was replacing frames. No, I'm pretty sure I didn't. I am getting good at spotting the queen and I don't think I would have missed her. My guess is she's in there but not laying eggs because she doesn't have room? Maybe. I'm totally freaking! I'm already sweaty and swollen and here comes my grandpa on the lawn mower. He just wants to take a closer look but loud noises and beehives don't miz=x well. Great. I just put the hive back together. By this time it was cloudier and the bees were agitated and there wasn't anything else I could do.

I came home to do some research. Yes. Queens will stop laying if they are honey bound. Makes sense. Some people put a third deep on hives that are honey bound in order to stimulate the queen to lay. This will be the game plan for the next *nice* day. I will also add another super for good measure. It makes my back sore just thinking about it. It also will make the hive as tall as me. A deep that is full of honey weighs 90 pounds. Instead of just having to lift two on and off the hive, I'll have to lift three. It probably explains why the bees have been so angry and why I can't find new eggs. Probably. Or it means that the queen is gone but no way to know for a week or so.

I also did something I've never did before. I done ordered a replacement queen for whichever hive needs it next week. If one doesn't produce a queen they can have her. Or maybe I will put her in the giant hive to see if it improves their bitchiness. She is being delivered at the end of next week. She is coming from northern Indiana. My choices were to get a cheaper queen accustomed to warm weather- from California and drive two hours alone to pick her up, which doesn't make much sense, or to pay more for a survivor stock queen that came from a strain of bees that do well in the winter. Not a very hard decision, well not for my brain. It was a little tough on my purse.

****Today (we're going into the future! actually, most of this post was written on 5/8 and published on 5/10) I put the third deep on. Still didn't find eggs or a sign of the queen. Yes, that beehive is definitely as tall as me now. Makes me nervous with all this Ohio wind. Next weekend I will have to take off one of the supers that is full of nectar and split it among all three hives, switching out their empty combs with the full ones. Then I'll give some of the empty combs back to the giant hive. I am a little overwhelmed with the amount of labor intensive work it has been. I really enjoy beekeeping when they are doing what I want them to do. I am a mess when they go rogue on me and do the unexpected. What the hell, bees? Just do the shit you are supposed to do already!

I feel like I don't have the back up support I need sometimes. I don't know any beekeepers in the area very well and the ones around would probably gasp at my methods. "What? You're not going to use pesticides in your hives?" Some I've talked to kind of made me feel like one of those silly agrarian movement folks who will get tired of it in two years when it isn't cool anymore. Therefore didn't want to give me the time of day. I feel like I am in this alone.

In my stress storm, I may have told someone that I wanted to dump all the bees at his front door. I took it back but it sure did feel good to say at the time.

In other news, I decided I want to start collecting honey from all over the country. My cousin (I think he is my cousin?) in Arizona is sending me some honey from out there and I started thinking about how fun it would be to try honey from other states. So, to anyone who randomly finds and reads this blog, I would love to swap honey with you! A jar of my Black Swamp Wildflower Honey for a jar of your or your local "insert cute regional honey name here". Put your contact info in the comments section and I will be in touch.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Overall, it has been a productive weekend for me. I planted my herbs. Rosemary, tarragon, chocolate mint, lemon thyme, sweet basil, thai basil and curry. I had sage, english thyme, and lemon balm winter over from last year. The mints and lemon balm will make some awesome teas. I plan on cutting some and drying them to put in my reusable tea bags. Most varieties of mint are great for upset stomachs and indigestion and lemon balm helps promote relaxation while having a really great lemony sweet taste.If you are just starting out with the gardening hobby, herbs are a
fantastic way to dip your toes in. They are easy to grow, take up little
space and you get to cook fun things with them! I'm waiting for some Greek oregano and marjoram to go on sale at the greehouses, then I'll have pretty much everything I need.

Yesterday I checked my bees. The first split looks successful. I took my cousin out with me when I did my inspection (he wants bees) and we spotted a queen in the newly established hive. I didn't see any eggs so it means she may not have been mated yet but if she doesn't make it there are two other queen cells that have not hatched out yet, so two more chances. If it doesn't work, I'll join the two splits and see if I can order a queen. I really don't want to do that because I think my strain of bees, even though they can be grouchy, are an industrious strain and I don't want to mess with there genes if they are successful. We were lucky yesterday. They were as calm as I've ever seen them. It was very sunny and warmer and I don't think they had any recent visits by the lawnmower :)

and then there were three. a burgeoning bee yard.

Another little project I am working on is trying to turn the below chunk of burr comb into a necklace. I am going to shellack it and put it on a chain. I don't know, maybe paint it too. I love the intricate design of honeycomb. Fake honeycomb jewelry is starting to become popular on etsy and I think mine will be cooler because it is actually real honeycomb. Burr comb (honeycomb built somewhere in the hive where you don't want it) pops up in beehives every once in a while and most beekeepers remove it because it gets in the way and ends up being damaged anyway. This particular piece I found in a gap between frames. I had to remove it because I needed to put another frame of wax right where it was hanging. I will post a picture of the finished product.

If you are interested in honeybee issues and colony collapse disorder, I would like to recommend a few different websites to check out and get more info. You can support small-scale beekeeping operations like mine (okay mine is uber small) by purchasing local honey and donating to organizations that support healthy pollinating insect populations. Did you know that a lot of the mass market honey you buy in supermarkets comes from China? Much of it has been tested to not even be real honey. They often water it down with HFCS (high fructose corn syrup)

Just yesterday I donated to a grass roots organization that promotes organic super foods and bee products. When you donate, you also get a "perk", such as 10 packets of African honey. What a great way to promote a good cause. I think its pretty awesome. Check it here.

The National Honey Board has Tons of fun recipes that contain honey. This week they shared a recipe for honey margaritas!

I want to go here
sometime. My friend's Mom went and raved to me about it. They have a
honey tasting bar. Yummy. And they have honey roasted coffee! OMG,
If you have ever wronged me in any way and want to make up for it, or would
like to make up for the fact that you never got me a birthday present,
or Christmas present, or Valentines Day Present, or just love me in general and want to show me how much ....Get me the honey roasted coffee.

I'm sorry, its just that time of year, when my posts will be 75% about bees.

I try to learn as much as I can about bees and beekeeping so that I can manage my hives in a way that is both productive for me and for the bees. I recently ran into some information about propolis, a product of the bees. It is a plant resin that the bees gather to use inside the hive. It comes from trees and flowers and honeybees bring it in and use it as a cement/medicine for the hive. They use it to glue the lid and frames down, seal cracks and if any foreign object gets in that they can't drag out, say a mouse got in and died there, they will mummify it in propolis. It has anti fungal and anti viral properties. Humans have used it medicinally for years and recent science has found that it actually works. When I tore down one of my empty hives, I scraped out all the propolis, found a recipe for homemade propolis extract (costs 15-12 dollars for 1/2 oz in drugstores). You can use it topically and internally for all sorts of ailments and to overall boost immunity. I know for a fact (tried it myself) that propolis makes a great natural sore throat remedy. So this week I will be making some propolis extract. All you have to do is take a big hunk of the stuff break it up into small hunks, put it in a jar with some vodka, leave it for 2 months, let it evaporate to 50%, strain out the hunks and its ready to use. Hopefully it will be a good thing to have on hand for this coming winter's bugs.

propolis-a silly putty like goo that the bees use the same way we use duct tape. It fixes everything. I actually eneded up with a golf ball sized hunk by the time I was done scraping. I like saying hunk.

And now for my ridiculously easy recipe for homemade body wash. Okay, so it isn't exactly homemade-but it is home customized. All you have to do is the following:

1.) purchase a bottle of baby mild unscented Dr. Bronner's (DB) organic castile soap. Try to refrain from reading all the freaky religious stuff on the label and just get down to business. Who am I kidding? I read the whole label too.
2.) purchase an essential oil of your choice (can be found at health food stores and online)
3.) scrounge up an empty bottle
4.)Pour DB in bottle
5.) put 5 drops per ounce of soap; A three ounce bottle needs 15 drops. Gotta love math!
6.) put cap back on bottle (this is important) and shake it up
7.) use your soap in shower.

There you have it. A DIY organic soap that you made yourself. DB is a pretty reasonable priced organic castile soap and it is made here in the united states by a progressive company with strong sustainability practices. Last winter I bought a bottle of Pacifica Sandalwood natural body wash. I love the stuff,it smells amazing and they are a eco-friendly company. However, an 8 oz bottle costs about 9 bucks. You can get a 32 oz bottle of DB for about 13 bucks. More math...hm....and ....BINGO! Making your own this way is not only kind of fun, but it is cheaper than many other eco-friendly body washes.

You can use lots of different essential oils depending on your mood. Lavender is really easy to find and is great for stress and relaxation. If you invest in a bottle of this oil, it will last you a very long time and has many other uses besides making body wash. Mountain Rose Herbs as a mind blowing selection of organic EO's and you can follow the link which is on the sidebar. Also, there are other brands of castile soap but I haven't tried them. I imagine that they would work about the same. If you like a more strongly scented soap, use more EO and if you like a more lightly scented soap use less than the 5 drops per/1 oz ratio that I use. Also if for any reason you have a sensitivity to EO's or have to avoid it for health reasons (pregnancy) you can find skin safe synthetic fragrances online or in the soap making section of a craft store. You could even add a drop of food coloring if you want, but don't go too crazy and wind up with pink or blue tinted skin.

When selecting your bottle, any used plastic squeeze bottle would do. I using smaller bottles because I like variety. In the summer I like lavender and citrus blends while in the fall and winter I like warmer scents like sandalwood, vanilla and florals. I have quite a collection of EO's because I use them for so many things. DB is a fairly runny liquid but it is concentrated-a little goes a long way and it suds up nicely. Not only can you use it for your body but it can be used as a laundry and dish detergent, bug repellent, facial soap, natural pesticide and shampoo.

Oh hey there, good music!

Um, okay time to take that bunch of spearmint pictured above, make a mojito and go back to day dreaming about the solar wax melter that I conned a wonderfully amazing person to build for me this fall...

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Today I visited Dixon, an old and dear friend of mine. I was lucky enough to meet him my first year of college when I signed up to go on a volunteer trip to Yellowstone. My first impression of him was "who is that hippie bearded guy with the long hair?" I discovered soon after that he grew up only a few miles from me and even though he was a few years younger (okay like 4) that we had a lot in common. He likes to do things from scratch too.

He makes wine, he bakes his own bread and he loves to cook. I enjoy the stories he tells, I admire his intolerance for drama and I love that despite having a handful of traumatic things happen to him over the years, he retains a positive outlook on life and a very strong faith in God. I forgot his birthday and he didn't get angry, I often go far, far too long without calling him and he never judges me. He is truly a good person in every sense and being around him is like breathing fresh air. It just feels good.

Today's visit in particular was to meet his new ladies. 5 of them. He recently acquired new egg laying chickens-something I've wanted to do for years and years. I insisted that as soon as he got them, that he needed to let me come see them. I decided to name them for him as well. The problem is that they are really hard to tell apart so unfortunately for them, 4 are named Princess Erica and the other one is Hennifer.

He built this coop himself. Twice. While in its early stages, it blew over in a wind storm. This was one of the several stories he told me today that cracked me up. Not the best picture of the chickens but I spent the rest of the time trying to catch one.

Not only did he let me chase his chickens around, he made some venison stew and the best homemade granola I've ever had. A recipe I insisted I steal from him and share on my blog. So it goes like this.

Mix all the ingredients thoroughly, spread on a parchment covered bar pan and then put in a pre-heated 350 ish degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until slightly browned and crispy on top. The middle and bottom should be chewy. When its cooled, you can break it up in chunks or cut into uniform pieces. It should be good in a covered container for a week or two, but it won't last that long. It was delicious. Crispy, chewy, sweet and slightly salty.

Dixon showing me how he makes his granola.

Not only did he give me a fantastic granola recipe, a delicious, healthy and free meal, complete with homemade bread, but he also gave me these. Yep, those are enormous eggs and two bottles of homemade wine. Peach and Blueberry.

Sorry ladies, he is taken by a nice girl I haven't gotten the privilege to meet yet but I will let you know as soon as anything changes.

Friday, April 27, 2012

I checked on the split today. The tiny little starter colony did what I wanted them to do. They took several of the eggs from the borrowed frames and are in the process of raising new queens. Yes, I said queen(s).

The bee logic is that it is always good to not put all your eggs in one basket. Several queens may emerge (in this case I counted 7 capped queen cells) but they have to meet the worker bees quality control standards. If a queen is weak or deformed she is kicked out. The queens that make the cut have to take a mating flight, survive the predators and then find their way back to the hive. Often times, if multiple queens return to the hive, the best one will fight the weaker ones and they will also be kicked out or killed. It sounds brutal but its all for the health of the whole colony. It is rare, but sometimes colonies (I'm assuming confused, disorganized ones) will allow multiple queens. But usually only the best queen will be able to reproduce and ensure that the whole colony is healthy and productive. I am hopeful that one out of seven of these babies will rise to the prestigious title of her royal highness.

That is basically the reason why splitting hives is risky business. Even after everything I've done so far, finding the queen cells and 7 chances of having a successful queen rearing, things could go wrong. I don't want to get too cocky but I am happy with the progress so far.

check out the upper right hand corner. That pale faced, zombie-esque looking bee head is a baby bee emerging from a cell. Its a drone. Queen cells look like peanuts or chubby stubby thumbs, worker cells are flat and plain, and the drone cells look like bubble wrap.

Here you can see what a queen cell looks like. Kind of like a yellow peanut. They are usually found at the bottom of a frame. However, I found some smack dab in the middle of the same frame. I couldn't get the bees to cooperate and move enough to take a picture. I was not wearing gloves. You can only do so much coaxing ungloved and expect not to get stung. One of the cells is uncapped. Its so interesting to see worker bees cluster around queen cells much more so than other cells. I have no idea if that means there is one already hatched or if it just never got used. I did not find any queens in the hive today.

Bees doing their bee thing. There is an capped queen cell right in the middle of the frame. Could hatch in anywhere from one to two weeks if I did my math right. Can you believe I took these with my iphone?

Okay, so the monster hive still looks crowded but good. The queen has been laying in the honey super because they are running out of room. They have tons of pollen stored in the brood boxes. Also there is quite a bit of nectar being stored in the super already. I am trying to decide if I want to let them do their own thing, swarm when they want to, or keep trying to discourage them. In a way I like the idea of letting them do what comes naturally for them. Less swarming usually means more honey but it also means a bigger and more difficult to manage hive. Those boxes are HEAVY and the more that get stacked on the more lifting and straining I will have to be doing this summer. Last summer I had a major scare. Hot weather, fully suited, heavy boxes, and passing out within inches of going face first into a hive full of thousands of honeybees. Not good.

I did not find a single varroa mite today. Not one. Also haven't seen those pesky hive beetles since I did my first hive inspection in early March. Things are looking good. Now if only I can them to be a little calmer and less aggressive. These bees are ornery. They love to dive bomb my face. I don't know why, but even on a sunny warm day when they should be ignoring me, they chase me around the lawn. These hives are on my grandparents property. One theory I have is that my grandpa, who has difficulty walking, takes an almost daily drive by on his lawnmower to see what the bees are doing. Loud noise supposedly really bothers them. I could never ask my grandpa to stop. He is 92 and the fact that he even gets outside every day is extremely admirable. I love that he has taken such a keen interest in them. My grandma told me today that she gets a kick out of watching me do inspections from the window. "Especially when you are dancing around". I am assuming she means my reactions to realizing that there is a bee crawling up my pant leg...

This afternoon I did an inventory of my current honey stores. A lot-44 lbs. I've decided to sell some on etsy to make way for my 2012 harvest, which could start as early as June. Its fall honey; Darker but still very mellow and lacking the sharper edge that the spring honey has. Its full of pollen, enzymes and other goodies. I have been drinking tea like crazy, always with honey. Have had very few allergy symptoms this spring. Usually get a really itchy throat and lots of sneezing. I really do think its the honey.

Oh, and the 11ish lbs of old brood comb that I took out of the empty hives (because mice, ants and various other yuckies were getting into t it and I have nowhere to store them) yielded me 16 oz of clean wax. Yep, one pound. There was a ton of old pollen stores, and bee sized dust bunnies that accumulated a lot of the weight.

bright orange wax at top from brood frames, light yellow wax from honey stores. I got a cute mold that makes these perfect little one ounce bars. Pretty amazing how so much pollen can stain the wax. No amount of filtering can get it out but I think it is pretty. Smells divine too.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Gritty Girl got a new look. Blogger changed it's layout so I thought it was high time I changed mine. Not much to post, just wanted to show off the edgy new look. I have a batch of wild violets brewing in the fridge for some wild violet jelly-its that time of year again. My asparagus collection is almost to the amount I need to make some more asparagus pickles. I could have made some last week but I'm giving a generous portion to a very sweet gentleman friend who happens to have my same affinity for the stuff. I want do do a post about infused honeys but that will have to come later when I am less busy also. My social life is in the upswing and I am taking advantage while I can.

All I have for you today is a collection of things I really like. Products, recipes, music, gadgets, etc. You may find them useful or you may not but I can look back on this blog and remember all of the things I was digging back in the day.

1. I wish I knew how to make my own shampoo but I don't. I wish I could use Dr. Bronner's on my hair but I can't. Its much too thick, curly and needs major moisture. So I recently discovered a nice smelling, natural and animal friendly shampoo that smells fantastic. Here it is. The conditioner is dreamy also. The only natural brand that doesn't make my hair look and feel like straw.

5. I had a lot of fun growing my own mushroom a few years ago. Now I want this one.

6. I need this for my honey jar. It would make it much more easy to pour from a mason jar and the sides wouldn't get so sticky from the drips.

7. I ADORE this song from Jason Mraz. I was totally feeling every word a few months ago. Isn't it amazing to hear a song that really speaks to you? Not so much now but I still love the lyrics. If you don't want to listen to it because it is too poppy or whatever, fine. Me and 16 million other people love it so maybe you are the weird one?

8. Another book on my etsy wish list. This one looks like the perfect read for cold rainy spring days.

10. I've always wanted to skip the huge fancy wedding, elope and spend my money on a honeymoon like this. I don't know why people put so much emphasis on a ceremony that lasts 20 minutes and a receptions that most people forget when they could spend it on a week in paradise instead. I get regular newsletters from this place and they make me drool.

That's all for now. If anyone knows a rich, single guy ( well, he doesn't necessarily have to be single..)that would like to buy me some of the things listed above, send him my way.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

The pine cone, waste candle wax and egg carton fire starter!
First I thought I would share a stupendous idea I came across while surfing around on my favorite website, etsy.
One of my favorite summer activities is sitting around a bonfire with my friends and family. Bonfires cannot be successful without good fire starting tools. Have you seen this before?

yes i have dirt under my nails. sue me.

It is a recycled/repurposed fire starter. All you need to make them are cardboard egg cartons (no Styrofoam!), small pine cones and leftover candle wax-the stuff that remains after your wick burns out. You cut out the cups of the egg carton, melt the wax (I used glass container candle that had burned out and melted it in a double boiler method in a sauce pan. Don't microwave unless you want candle wax all over it.) and pour a little into the bottom of the cup and quickly stick in your pin cone so it is embedded in the wax. Drizzle a little more hot wax over the pine cone and when its cool you have a ready to light fire starter. The wax helps the paper and pine cone catch fire and burn slowly. You know what else makes these things great? They smell wonderful. Like pine and whatever candle wax you used for your fire starters. Mine was an old cinnamon Christmas candle. Its aromatherapy for your campsite! I have lots of beeswax but its satisfying being able to use something that would otherwise go to waste. If you dont have access to cute little baby pine cones you can use little sticks and twigs or wood chips and they burn well too. If you want to be extra fancy you can stick cinnamon sticks or nut shells in them.

Other things I've learned:

Infused honey is awesome. I made a jar of garlic infused honey by simply tearing off the cloves, smashing them and placing them in a jar and covering them with honey. Didn't even take the peels off. Lid on, shake, shake, shake for three weeks and done. Now I have a fantastic grilling glaze for pork or chicken or veggies. It seems like it would be weird but it tastes amazing! I was so happy with the results that I had to try it with my dried chiles. In a few weeks I'll have hot chile honey for stir-fry, meats, and as a base for a spicy salad dressing maybe?

Also:
Today I think I burned a thousand calories. I planted almost an acre of native wildflowers and the reason why I had dirt under my nails. My bees will thank me. I am happy to announce this because it is the most exercise I've gotten in a month. I also got a mild sunburn which I hate because I can already see the freckles popping out. Tomorrow morning I have a 60 minute date with my elliptical. Speaking of health related things, in my last post I mentioned that I was going to jump start my metabolism. I have been eating pretty much vegan (besides my honey) for the last two days and it is going well so far. I miss cheese but I found out that Almond milk is far superior to regular milk. In addition to this, a nicely ripened avocado makes a delicious alternative to butter for toast, baked potatoes and crackers. It would be hard to make a white sauce or butter cream frosting with an avocado I am thinking.

Now for my soapbox rant!
I only have 15 pounds to go before I hit my goal weight by my 30th birthday! I haven't weighed myself for a few days but I am looking forward to seeing the scale for once in my life. While ideally I would like to lose more than 15 pounds total, I have to keep reminding myself that some people are unlucky in that they will constantly struggle and have ups and downs. They will become very frustrated with themselves and often feel either deprived for not being able to enjoy what everyone else is having or guilty for giving in and having what everyone else is having. It is a lifetime struggle. It will be for me. I would like to say that this is the first time I've had to lose weight but it isn't. A lot of people don't know this about me but on my 20th birthday I weighed 221 pounds and wore a size 16/18. Today I am a size 10/12 and weigh 168 pounds (maybe a lb or two less?). At my skinniest (my broke ass days in college and living on no money at all in North Carolina) I weighed 148 and was a 6/8. While I would love to be back at that size, I probably never will be. I was hungry all the time and probably missing all sorts of necessary vitamins and minerals. I am 5'8" and according to webmd I only technically need to lose 9 pounds to be considered normal but I think I can do a little better.

Why am I sharing all of this? Because I want to not only take ownership in the goal I've set but I also want to remind myself that I am not perfect and will never be. I am happy to say that I am not anywhere near what I was when I was 20. I'm still better. I don't ever want to be where I was but ups and downs are just part of my life. My body is genetically wired to gain weight easily. I can't be too hard on myself about it and other people shouldn't either. When something bad happens to me I always defult to feeling like it happened because I am not good enough, smart enough or skinny enough. It has to stop. I have to like myself and I have to be confident. I deserve good things and my happiness depends on it. I need to stop worry about why people don't like me or decide not to give me the time of day. If people want to be crappy to me it isn't because I am not smart or pretty or skinny. It's because they are crappy, shallow people and hopefully just might regret it later.

The Nettle soup I was talking about making last week? Smelled like scummy water and tasted like total ass.

This is my new(er) nephew. He was born before I jumped back into this blog. He is being baptized this sunday and I am so lucky to be allowed to babysit next week when his mamma goes back to work. I don't think she can do anything but be awesome and make awesome children.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

The last two weeks have been about trying new things. Lat week I went to my uncle's woods and dug up a handful of ramps which I have never tried before but heard lots about. I stumbled upon them while searching for morel mushrooms (of which I found none) and came back later to harvest a few. It was a small patch and I felt guilty taking more than a few. This is what they look like.

And this is what I did with them

I put 2 of them them in a bowl of chicken stock. After you clean them up you eat the leaves and bulb. Just ramps and chicken stock. It made a really delicious and simple soup. It tasted like the perfect cross between garlic and onions. I had a few left over that I chopped up and froze for a future special occasion. Hopefully I will come across more next year. Then there are the fiddleheads. I heard those are edible too. While not as good as the ramps, I steamed some and put them over a bowl of rice and had myself a nice little stir fryish type lunch.

There were a few extra so I decided to pickle some. They taste better pickled in my spicy pickle brine than they did steamed. They taste a lot like, well ferns. They are very grassy. I tried to feed them to my family at the annual Easter dinner. think I got two people to try them. Everyone else gave me the "Erica is acting crazy again" eye roll.

I added a few new fun items to my etsy shop including coffee flavored lip balm and some gift baskets.

Today I did a sugar shake to my beehive. Its where you take a bunch of powdered sugar and sift it onto the bees in the hive. The sugar coats many of the bees and encourages them to groom each other, knocking off varroa mites. While my hive is very strong, I still see varroa mites and bees with deformed wings (caused by varroa). When I opened my hive I noticed that the honey super was full of brood or bee larva. I've never had a hive so big that the queen climbed all the way into the honey super looking for room to lay her eggs. I thought it was a good time to try a split as there wasn't much room left for growth in the hive anyway. I carefully inspected a few frames to make sure the queen wasn't on them and placed them into another small hive I had set up several weeks ago.

The hope is that all the bees on the frames I moved will accept the new hive as their home and raise a new queen. I made sure that the frames I pulled out had uncapped larva so that the bees had time to feed them royal jelly which produces a queen. I blocked the entrance of the hive so that no bees could get in or out for a day or two. This will hopefully give them time to situate themselves to their new surroundings. Over the next few weeks I may pull a frame of brood out to donate to the new hive to help boost their numbers. I don't expect much. It is a long shot doing it this way. It is traditionally done by introducing a new queen to the new colony rather than making them try to raise their own. Unfortunately I don't have the cash for a new queen but I do have a lot of faith in them. They are special bees. If it looks like the new hive is failing, I will put them back into the larger hive. This is what they looked like today before I messed with them.

look at the bees in flight. Aren't they cool. And if you look really close you can see the different colors of pollen they are bringing in. Light yellow, orange, red...

See how many bees are in the honey super? Tons. Hopefully I eased some of the congestion by taking out a few frames...

In other news, I also made 5 jars of raspberry syrup from last year's frozen berries in the freezer. I find that I more often use syrups than jams and jellies so I am going to focus more on making more of that this year. Its great mixed with club soda and a lemon wedge.

So what's next? There is a nice sized patch of stinging nettles nearby that is calling my name. I hear you can cook them and use them just like spinach. I have a nice collection of asparagus in the fridge so I am thinking cream of asparagus and nettles soup would be a fun experiment. This weekend I have a job lead to follow, I plan to remove some clutter from my life, both physical and mental. I have a lot of clothes to go through and donate, a lot of stress to relieve myself of and a few more pounds to lose. I have about 15 more lbs to go to hit my goal weight by my birthday. Tomorrow starts (well why not right now?) a major health overhaul. There will be no meat for a few days, then no dairy, then no super cooked foods then I plan on doing a whole week of just raw food. I hit a plateau and have read that this can rev up one's metabolism.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

I did it! I finally got around to melting down, cleaning and filtering some of my beeswax for candles and they turned out great! It was a long, sticky and hot process but after two previous failed attempts. My wax is clean enough to burn. First I took 6 quart sized ziplock bags of crushed comb (left over from the honey extracting process) and put them directly in a giant pot of water on the stove. As the water warmed, I stirred the wax and the excess honey dissolved out. When the wax melted completely, I took it off the heat and waited for the wax to cool and harden. The hardened wax floats on top and when it cooled , I took out the honey flavored water (and saved it) and filled the pot with fresh water and repeated the process in order to get all the honey out. The wax will not burn efficiently if there is still honey in it. The first two times I tried it I only washed/melted the wax in water once and filtered it through cheesecloth (holes are too big) and my candles smoked, sputtered, sparked and went out in less than a minute. Pathetic.

melting the wax in water to dissolve the honey

here you can see the brownish globs of propolis

putting the clean but not yet filtered wax into a jar and remelting it for filtering

once the wax was melted I took it out and poured it through the sweatshirt material to take out the remaining clumps of propolis and pollen.

﻿

finished candles and block of clean beeswax. so pretty.

﻿After the wax cooled and hardened the second time, I remelted it with a double boiler process and filtered it through an old sweatshirt to get out the debris. The clumpy dark stuff, which is mostly propolis (plant resin) is the debris. Then my wax was ready to used for candles. I used a few of these cute old school weck jars because they are sturdy, can withstand high heat and are simple yet sophisticated. One of these tiny candles burned for almost 20 hours for me! Some of the many great things about beeswax- It burns cleanly and for a long time, does not release toxins into the air AND smells like honey! Those 6 bags of crushed comb made about three lbs of filtered wax which is not very much considering the time it took me to process so next time I think I am going to go ahead and process all of my wax at once.

So what did I do with all that honey flavored water? Well I thought about tossing it. But when I tasted it, i found it was pretty darn sweet. There was quite a bit of honey trapped inside that crushed comb and knowing it takes a worker bee its entire lifetime to make just one teaspoon of honey, there was no way I could let it go to waste. So being the huge tea drinker I am (4-5 cups a day) I decided to save it to sweeten my tea. Now this was wax that came from my honey supers so it didn't have bugs, dead bees or any gross things in it. Just propolis and some pollen so why not keep it. It was also heated to boiling for several minutes so I don't want any comments about the likelihood of me poisoning myself, okay? I put it in several extra jars and will keep it in the fridge for a few weeks to use for my tea.

yeah, yeah it looks like pee. but its honey flavored water.

I have quite a few frames of older wax that I need to do something with before they succumb to mice or bugs. It takes just as much time to do a little as it does a lot so might as well go balls to the wall! So when you are considering your zombie apocalypse team, please add "candle maker" to my list of qualifications.

This week I plan to go to an undisclosed forest location to dig up a few wild ramps (native garlicky, oniony things that are fast becoming delicacies at famous restaurants) and do something fun with them.